It is done, finally! My long-awaited web & graphic design portfolio has officially launched. This has been quite overdue, I must say. But here we are, upon the high seas. Or, safely in orbit. You pick the metaphor.

My desire to have a portfolio goes back at least 6 months. At that time (Summer 2007) I didn’t have much to fill a portfolio with, so I started creating some website mock-ups to get the ball rolling. I figured that even if I didn’t have clients, I could at least create some dummy sites to show what I could do, right?

But then came the inevitable sidetrack — the first of my freelance gigs! An actual client! With an actual product! This raised new challenges of course, but I was more than happy to accept these. This was, after all, what I wanted: real, live experience! And of course, the end result would look great on my portfolio!

Of course this was true, but the important step was that I make the time to actually create the portfolio. I took on freelance project after freelance project (and gratefully so), but somehow found myself further and further away from getting a portfolio up and running.

As summer turned into autumn, I fell back on the mental comfort of saying I’d have my portfolio launched “by New Years, at least!” That was months away… plenty of time, right? Well, it is plenty of time — that is for sure — but it requires you make it happen. As December rolled around and started to wear thin, it became apparent to me…

…I wasn’t going to have a portfolio launched by New Years.

Alas, the disappointment! Yet who else was I to blame but myself? It was time I did some serious introspection and got down to the root of the problem.

You see, it wasn’t at all that I was swamped with work, freelance or regular-job. And it also had nothing to do with not devoting enough time to the portfolio. I had, in fact, come up with various drafts and concepts for the portfolio design, yet I lacked the fortitude to pick a design and follow through with implementing it.

That was the problem, and I finally recognized it. As stated, I would come up with a design concept and flesh it out 90% of the way… but then get swept away by the promise of an even better design. So it went… this process continued, starting itself over and over again.

I realized my problem: my intention (to launch a portfolio) was too open-ended. I was not giving myself the necessary constraints to channel my energy. Without such constraints, my intentions — however noble they might be — were wildly spraying all over the place, never fully able to coalesce and come together in a solid, cohesive form.

The solution? Quite simple, really. I needed a simple deadline. “By the end of the week,” I said to a good friend also in the design business, “I will have launched my portfolio. I will have finalized a design, created the foundational pages, and it will be up and running.” I asked that he help hold me to this promise, and the mental seed had taken root.

I was on a mission… one with a definitive due date. Finally.

That week of work will be one I shall remember for a long time. From the outset, I had to take inventory of the required tasks and manage my time effectively. More than once I flirted with the idea that plagued me so many times in the past — the “let me try this idea” reasoning that lead me down so many endless roads in search of perfection.

Yet, stray as I may have from the path, I was always brought back on course by the deadline that loomed above me. Side-quests are fine, I knew, as long as they do not detract from my ability to accomplish my primary goals. If this meant I had to leave well-enough alone with several less-than-perfect design elements, then so be it!

Time ticked; the days passed… the end of the week had arrived. I had one more day and a very clear idea of what needed to get done. I shall not lie: there is a part of me that was entirely concerned with the “imperfection” that littered the path behind me, always pleading for me to go back and make things perfect before proceeding. But I would not be tempted. This voice must be ignored for the time being, there was no question.

And by day’s end — with a few hours to spare, in fact — I had reached my objective. The portfolio was officially launched, its freshly constructed hull still raw with the sawdust from its construction. But such imperfections did not matter… for the dragon was slain. The boon was mine.

Having climbed to this vantage point, I look back at the young man I used to be who spent his countless hours pouring over diagrams and blueprints in the shipyard. So many plans, all geared toward perfection. They did him well for aspiration, to be sure, yet the weighed him down with ultimately unrealistic goals. If he was to wait until the design was perfect before commencing with construction, he would be waiting for quite a long time.

Perhaps in some other world I am still waiting in that shipyard, pouring over my would-be perfect sketches and diagrams. In this world, however, I have moved on. I have accepted good enough, if only for now, and followed through with the vision. As for the nagging whispers of “not good enough!” whisper into my ear… I cast them away without hesitation, instead looking to the horizon where future treasures may be found.

For this vessel is no static thing — it shall change. It shall undergo improvements, upgrades, and tweaks of all nature and variety. Best of all, these various tweaks will take place while I am out at sea. The foundation is sound, the vessel will allow for it. The next time I sail into port, I shall be on quite the improved ship with the experience to show for it.

So here I am, writing these happy words as I coast atop of the waters of the internet on my freshly launched vessel. The foundation is sturdy. She will be able to withstand the rigors of the journey without faltering. The improvements can wait. For now, I enjoy a victory long in the making.